vahid-ahmadi · Oct 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026
diff --git a/lib/slideshows.ts b/lib/slideshows.ts
@@ -27,8 +27,10 @@ import { overhang2026Config } from "@/slideshows/overhang-2026/config";
 import { overhang2026BackupConfig } from "@/slideshows/overhang-2026-backup/config";
 import { overhang2026LightningConfig } from "@/slideshows/overhang-2026-lightning/config";
 import { blsTaxsim2026Config } from "@/slideshows/bls-taxsim-2026/config";
+import { introduction2026Config } from "@/slideshows/introduction-2026/config";
 
 export const slideshows: SlideshowConfig[] = [
+  introduction2026Config,
   blsTaxsim2026Config,
   overhang2026Config,
   overhang2026LightningConfig,

diff --git a/lib/speakers.ts b/lib/speakers.ts
@@ -36,6 +36,11 @@ export const speakers: Record<string, SpeakerInfo> = {
     title: 'Data Scientist',
     photo: '/headshots/ben-ogorek.jpg',
   },
+  'vahid-ahmadi': {
+    name: 'Vahid Ahmadi',
+    title: 'Research Associate',
+    photo: '/headshots/vahid-ahmadi.png',
+  },
   'maria-juaristi': {
     name: 'Maria Juaristi',
     title: 'PolicyEngine',

diff --git a/public/headshots/vahid-ahmadi.png b/public/headshots/vahid-ahmadi.png
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/10-downing-street.png b/public/logos/orgs/10-downing-street.png
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/centre-for-policy-studies.png b/public/logos/orgs/centre-for-policy-studies.png
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/good-growth-foundation.png b/public/logos/orgs/good-growth-foundation.png
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/house-of-lords.svg b/public/logos/orgs/house-of-lords.svg
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/new-economics-foundation.png b/public/logos/orgs/new-economics-foundation.png
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/nuffield-foundation.svg b/public/logos/orgs/nuffield-foundation.svg
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/tax-policy-associates.jpg b/public/logos/orgs/tax-policy-associates.jpg
diff --git a/public/logos/orgs/wpi-economics.svg b/public/logos/orgs/wpi-economics.svg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/autumn-budget-2025-constituency-map.png b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/autumn-budget-2025-constituency-map.png
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/autumn-budget-2025.png b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/autumn-budget-2025.png
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/capx-nationalisation.webp b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/capx-nationalisation.webp
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/cityam-burnham-junior-hiring-ni.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/cityam-burnham-junior-hiring-ni.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/electricity-vat-cut.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/electricity-vat-cut.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/energy-price-shock-calculator.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/energy-price-shock-calculator.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/free-childcare-reform.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/free-childcare-reform.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/itv-peston-fuel-duty.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/itv-peston-fuel-duty.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/itvpeston-student-loan.webp b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/itvpeston-student-loan.webp
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/lvt-council-tax.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/lvt-council-tax.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/middle-east-war-living-standards.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/middle-east-war-living-standards.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/nef-neets-job-quality.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/nef-neets-job-quality.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/smf-ai-junior-hiring-ni.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/smf-ai-junior-hiring-ni.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/targeted-energy-discount.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/targeted-energy-discount.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/telegraph-nic.webp b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/telegraph-nic.webp
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/tpa-universities-uk-ni.png b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/tpa-universities-uk-ni.png
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/uk-ai-study.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/uk-ai-study.jpg
diff --git a/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/uk-cliff-watch.jpg b/public/screenshots/introduction-2026/uk-cliff-watch.jpg
diff --git a/slideshows/introduction-2026/README.md b/slideshows/introduction-2026/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# PolicyEngine introduction and Budget planning, 9 October 2026
+
+10 slides at `/slides/introduction-2026`: a short introduction to PolicyEngine
+for a journalist, then recent work, the Autumn Budget and ideas for working
+together.
+
+- `config.ts` controls the slide order and meeting metadata.
+- `content.ts` holds the sources, user list, press and publication cards,
+  Budget plan and ideas.
+- `slides/index.tsx` contains the slides.
+- `SPEAKER-NOTES.md` gives the presenter track and what not to claim.
+
+Images are in `public/screenshots/introduction-2026/`:
+
+- press images and publication covers come from the app-v2 repo
+  (`app/public/assets/citations/` and `app/public/assets/posts/`);
+- `autumn-budget-2025.png` is the 2025 dashboard overview;
+- `autumn-budget-2025-constituency-map.png` was captured from
+  https://uk-autumn-budget-dashboard.vercel.app/uk/autumn-budget-2025 on
+  8 October 2026.
diff --git a/slideshows/introduction-2026/SPEAKER-NOTES.md b/slideshows/introduction-2026/SPEAKER-NOTES.md
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+# Speaker notes: PolicyEngine introduction and Budget planning, 9 October 2026
+
+A 30-minute conversation with a journalist who may not know PolicyEngine.
+Keep the intro short (slides 2–4) and leave most of the time for slides 7–9.
+
+## 1. Title
+
+PolicyEngine: introduction and Budget planning. Presenters: Vahid Ahmadi, Max Ghenis, María Juaristi.
+
+## 2. What PolicyEngine is
+
+Free and open source. Anyone can use it in a browser. Two views: one
+household, or the whole country. Source: the policyengine.org UK home page
+("Free, open-source tax and benefit analysis").
+
+## 3. How it works
+
+Three parts: the rules (open code in policyengine-uk), the households (the
+Microcosm UK data: Family Resources Survey, HMRC tax records and other
+surveys, matched to official statistics), and the results. Say it in plain
+words; she doesn't need the pipeline detail.
+
+## 4. Our community
+
+Eight organisations that use, cite and support our work, as cards with
+logos and a type label; no description lines on the slide.
+- No 10 data science team (10DS): built its 10ds-microsim package on top of
+  PolicyEngine during Nikhil's Innovation Fellowship; the card links to our
+  20 January 2026 post. That post calls the outputs supplementary,
+  experimental analysis, so don't say No 10 relies on PolicyEngine.
+- House of Lords: our analysis was cited in a Lords debate on 24 February
+  2026. A citation in debate, not Parliament using PolicyEngine. The crowned
+  portcullis is restricted, so the card has no logo.
+- Tax Policy Associates: checked the Universities UK National Insurance
+  costing with PolicyEngine (10 September 2026).
+- Centre for Policy Studies: its July 2023 report "Family-Friendly Taxation"
+  used PolicyEngine modelling to cost its personal allowance proposals.
+- Nuffield Foundation: funds our local-area work; its project page names us.
+- New Economics Foundation: its July 2026 report on job quality and NEETs
+  used PolicyEngine UK (also on slide 5).
+- Good Growth Foundation and WPI Economics: both use PolicyEngine (Max
+  confirmed, 9 October). Neither has a public write-up yet, so the cards name
+  them without a link; leave detail of the work to Max.
+- Don't list HM Treasury: its algorithmic transparency record says "HMT does
+  not currently use PolicyEngine".
+
+## 5. In the media and reports
+
+Newest first: Tax Policy Associates' article on the Universities UK
+employer NI proposal (10 September 2026), CapX (1 September 2026, citing our bus
+fare cap costing), the New Economics Foundation's report on job quality and
+NEETs (July 2026; its modelling used PolicyEngine UK), City AM (junior hiring, July 2026), Social Market
+Foundation (AI and junior hiring, July 2026), ITV Peston (fuel duty, May
+2026), ITV Peston (student loans, February 2026) and Fran Ivens's Telegraph
+story of 28 October 2024, two days before that Budget (paywalled): our modelling
+of a 1p employer NI rise, £3,093 more employer NI on a £30,000 salary, or a
+salary cut to £29,818 if passed on. Our figure was the £182 pay cut; £3,093 was
+the employer's NI bill, so don't repeat the "£3,000" in the URL. It was a
+pre-Budget scenario for the IEA (a 1p rate rise), not the package announced,
+and it quoted Nikhil. Each card now carries one line on what we contributed;
+the student loans card has none, so say it if asked. The June 2026 land value tax
+post is on slide 6 instead, so it isn't shown twice.
+
+## 6. Recent UK work
+
+Eight pieces since April, newest first. Each card links to the live page.
+The land value tax post (a guest post by Vahid and Max on Progress and Poverty,
+4 June 2026) is new PolicyEngine modelling of a revenue-neutral swap from
+council tax to a land value tax; its card shows the post's decile chart.
+
+## 7. Autumn Budget 2025
+
+The dashboard went live at 13:43 GMT on Budget day 2025 with three measures
+(two-child limit repeal, threshold freeze extension, fuel duty freeze), each
+beside the OBR's costing, and the constituency map. Five more measures came on
+27 November, and the ninth and the household calculator on 28 November. The
+screenshot shows today's version, revised since Budget day, so don't read its
+totals out as Budget-day figures. Left: the dashboard overview
+(policy selector and revenue impact by year). Right: the constituency map
+(average change in household net income, 2029-30, all 650 constituencies).
+Both images link to the dashboard.
+
+## 8. Autumn Budget 2026: our plan
+
+Budget day is Wednesday 28 October. Same shape as last year, on the new
+Microcosm data. Constituency figures need the local-area data, which hasn't
+passed its checks yet, so they come later, with a short published method note.
+Don't promise exact timings, embeds or exclusives.
+
+## 9. Ideas for working together
+
+For discussion, not commitments: a Budget calculator for readers, local
+figures, fast costings (for example our costing of removing the £100,000
+childcare limit), chart data, explainers, and checkable numbers.
+
+If asked for the childcare figure: about £0.6bn a year from 2027-28. Corrections
+are still landing (uk-childcare-100k-threshold #6), and the "about 10,000
+families lose" line on the current dashboard was a modelling error that #6
+removes, so don't quote it. "Checkable" means open code and a published
+method: the household data are licensed survey data, so reporters can't
+rerun a figure themselves.
+
+## 10. Thank you
+
+Website, email, GitHub and LinkedIn.
+
+## Likely questions
+
+- Tax Policy Associates: £6.3bn is TPA's adjusted figure. Our raw output was
+  £9.1bn; TPA corrected it because our dataset had 2.9m employees aged 21 to 24
+  against about 2.2m (its footnote 5). Say Dan Neidle cross-checked his costing
+  with PolicyEngine; don't call £6.3bn our number, and acknowledge the age-count
+  point if it comes up.
+- No 10: our co-founder and CTO, Nikhil Woodruff, did the work as a No 10
+  Innovation Fellow embedded in 10DS. Say so up front.
+- Inheritance tax: PolicyEngine UK doesn't model it, including pensions coming
+  into inheritance tax.
+- Accuracy: our 2025 dashboard showed our figures next to the OBR's, and some
+  gaps were large. Don't claim we match the OBR.
diff --git a/slideshows/introduction-2026/config.ts b/slideshows/introduction-2026/config.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import type { SlideshowConfig } from "@/lib/types";
+import {
+  Budget2025Slide,
+  Budget2026Slide,
+  ClosingSlide,
+  HowSlide,
+  IdeasSlide,
+  PressSlide,
+  PublicationsSlide,
+  TitleSlide,
+  UsersSlide,
+  WhatSlide,
+} from "./slides";
+
+export const introduction2026Config: SlideshowConfig = {
+  id: "introduction-2026",
+  title: "PolicyEngine: introduction and Budget planning",
+  description:
+    "A short introduction to PolicyEngine: what it is, who uses it, recent UK work, the Autumn Budget plan and ideas for working together.",
+  date: "2026-10-09",
+  location: "PolicyEngine",
+  footerText: "PolicyEngine · 9 October 2026",
+  slides: [
+    TitleSlide,
+    WhatSlide,
+    HowSlide,
+    UsersSlide,
+    PressSlide,
+    PublicationsSlide,
+    Budget2025Slide,
+    Budget2026Slide,
+    IdeasSlide,
+    ClosingSlide,
+  ],
+};